Virginia may not be a powerhouse agriculture producer on par with places such as California, Iowa or even neighboring North Carolina, but hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in commerce are tied to farming, which is the commonwealth’s largest private industry.
Yet, what should be a period of excitement as the harvest follows a successful growing season is instead one of fear and uncertainty. The Trump administration’s tariffs are roiling international markets, many farm exports have collapsed and the White House is now considering a bailout package to help farmers.
These are self-inflicted wounds that could be mended by a return to regular order, by Congress asserting its control over trade measures and by a president made to understand that his tariff scheme is doing far more harm than good, especially for American farmers.
According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, farming has a $82.3 billion economic impact each year and supports more than 381,800 jobs in the commonwealth. Add in forestry and the total economic impact exceeds $105 billion and employment jumps to 490,000. VDACS reports that “every job in agriculture and forestry supports 1.6 jobs elsewhere in Virginia’s economy.”
Virginia farms are primarily involved in livestock, accounting for about 63% of commonwealth agriculture, per a 2021 report. But plenty of other crops — soybeans, wheat, peanuts, apples and corn, among them — spring forth from Virginia fields to land on kitchen tables, to be used in other Virginia products and to be shipped around the world where they are needed.
That last part — Virginia agriculture exports sold internationally — is where things have turned sour.
China, Canada, the United Kingdom, Taiwan and Belgium were Virginia’s largest export markets in 2023, the latest year for which data is available. “China imported more than $912 million in agricultural purchases, while Canada totaled more than $429 million and the United Kingdom imported more than $247 million,” that year according to VDACS.
The White House has imposed tariffs of varying levels on each of these countries and has assessed greater levies on specific products. The trade war with China is particularly troublesome for farmers, since that country imports between $30 billion-$40 billion of agricultural products annually.
This year, however, China’s spending on U.S. farm products has dried up after President Donald Trump imposed a 10% tariff on that country. China reciprocated by imposing tariffs on agriculture imports, and has purchased no soybeans since May.
China’s soybean imports represent 54% of all U.S. soybean exports, totaling about $12.6 billion. About $1 billion of those come from Virginia farmers, and soybeans represent the commonwealth’s largest agriculture export product.
“While this lower and more competitive U.S. soybean export price will be attractive to other soybean buyers in the EU, Egypt, Mexico, Thailand and elsewhere, there is simply no way that the rest of the world combined can fill the void left by China’s absence from the market,” Jason Grant, a professor of agriculture and director of the Center for Agricultural Trade at Virginia Tech, recently told Pilot reporter Gavin Stone.
China has turned to other countries — Argentina, Brazil — to fill the market void and could well end the year without reversing course. That could leave U.S. and Virginia farmers with 20% of their soybean crop unsold.
The White House recognizes that its policies are hurting farmers, but its solution is to use tariff revenue — that is, higher costs paid by American consumers — to fund a relief package. Trump followed this same course in his first term when his trade policies constricted agriculture export markets.
That’s just robbing Peter to pay Paul. The tariff scheme is being challenged in the courts, since only Congress has the power to levy taxes, and federal lawmakers could step in at any time to assert their authority.
Farmers are in the lurch — even the White House admits that — and they cannot afford to wait for relief from these tariffs for much longer.
